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EXECUTIVE BOARD COVERAGE

AVMA to discontinue online CE program

The AVMA will discontinue AVMA Ed, its online continuing education program for veterinarians.

At an April meeting, the AVMA Executive Board approved discontinuing AVMA Ed as of Dec. 1, when the contract with the program vendor expires.

The board established AVMA Ed in April 2008, and the program currently offers 91 CE courses, of which 66 draw on scientific articles from the JAVMA and 25 draw on presentations from the AVMA Annual Convention.

AVMA Ed has not met expectations with regard to the number of individuals taking courses or the amount of revenue generated, even after substantial changes were made to the program in 2010 to improve quality. The program consumes a considerable amount of staff time.

An August 2010 survey of AVMA members found that nearly all respondents believed the Association should offer online CE and approved of the AVMA Ed course formats, but most respondents had never taken an online CE course and 40 percent did not plan to do so in the future. Additionally, while a third of survey respondents were aware of AVMA Ed, only 10 percent of those had ever taken an AVMA Ed course.

"Although users of AVMA Ed were overwhelmingly positive about their experiences, the program ultimately did not attract sufficient interest to justify continuing it," said Dr. Kurt J. Matushek, AVMA editor-in-chief, after the board meeting. "Importantly, the discontinuation of AVMA Ed does not mean that the AVMA is abandoning online continuing education, and the Association will continue to investigate other platforms that will better serve our members' needs."